Coppery Ringtail Possums (Pseudochirops cupreus): Green Marsupials of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea

Interactions between ambient lighting and corporeal coloring account for the coppery ringtail possum’s greenness. Dense, fine, short black, brown, and grey fur conspires to carpet upper-sides coppery-green. Little, plush, thick black, white, and yellow hairs cover under-sides. Black-and-white mottling darkens and lightens under-parts in patterns befitting the natural play of light and shadow on branches and trunks. Function as a friction pad explains the prehensile (“grasping”), terminal-curled tail’s underside contrasting hairlessly white to the upper-side tapering rapidly from a lushly furry base to a sparsely-haired tip. Dark striping runs between the rounded, small ears and down the middle of the back. A pale, thin circle surrounds each big, round eye, each of whose pupils is vertically slit.

Camouflaged coats advance coppery ringtail sustainability during year-round breeding seasons. Sexually mature females deliver one newborn per litter. Newborns go from confinement in maternal pouches to maternal instruction in:

• Burrows under tree roots;
• Nests in tree hollows.

Immature coppery ringtails look darker and tinier than adults. But surviving pre-adults mature into physical and sexual adulthood with:

• Dentition: 6 incisors, 2 canines, 6 premolars, and 8 molars and of 4 incisors, 6 premolars, and 8 molars per respectively upper and lower jaws;
• Head-and-body lengths: 12.6 – 15.8 inches (32.0 – 40.13 centimeters);
• Tail lengths: 6.7 – 15.8 inches (17.02 – 40.13 centimeters);
• Weights: 3 pounds (1.36 kilograms).

Newly-emancipated adults then pursue:

• Night-foraging and tree-dwelling;
• Non-vocal communication;
• Occasional day-tripping and ground-foraying;
• Slow walking. 

The healthily sustainable realization of the coppery ringtail possum’s life cycle depends upon environmental factors. Coppery ringtail possums enjoy elevations of 4,921.26 – 13,110.24 feet (1,500 – 3,996 meters) above sea level. They favor niches within:

• Montane primary forests;
• Mountain brushlands, rainforests, sclerophyll (“hard leaf”) forests, and woodlands.

They find acceptable possibilities adapting to:

• Rural garden edges;
• Secondary forests;
• Subalpine grasslands.

But their natural history is not conducive to surviving without the presence of woody plants. Coppery ringtail possums in fact need mature, sturdy trees for:

• Avoiding predatory raptors and reptiles;
• Dwelling under roots and within cavities;
• Exercising over branches, forks and trunks;
• Feeding upon bark, flowers, fruits, leaves, and sap.

Their environmental role requires foliage-controlling, fruit-eating, seed-dispersing folivorousness.

The coppery ringtail possum’s biogeographical needs for rugged elevations and wooded slopes historically are met in the interior of the world’s second largest island. New Guinea nowadays belongs politically to:

• Indonesia, whose 2 provinces lie westward;
• Papua New Guinea, whose capital district and 16 provinces occupy the insular east.

The island claims as particularly diverse and dominant environmentally within its east-to-west-running central highland chain of ranges and valleys:

• The Bismarck and Owen Stanley Ranges, the Hagen and Kratke Ranges, and the Ramu River Plateau on the Papua New Guinea side;
• The Star Mountains on both sides of the Indonesia-Papua New Guinea border;
• The Maoke Mountains, the Purari Plateau, and the Wahgi River Valley on the Indonesian side. 

The occupation of the Central Range’s mountain ranges and river valleys by coppery ringtail possums covers 8,202.09-foot (2,500-meter) ranges in altitudes. Elevation determines which dominant vegetation will supply coppery ringtail possums with opportunities for group and physical activities and with sources of food and shelter. Altitude-specific wildlife associations emerge as:

• Broadleafs such as Papua New Guinea laurels (Cryptocarpa spp) and red (Lithocarpus celebicus) and white (Castanopsis acuminatissima) oaks at 4,921.26+ feet (1,500+ meters);
• Evergreens such as hoop (Araucaria cunninghamii) and klinki (Araucaria hunsteinii) pines and southern (Nothofagus spp) and wau (Elmerillia papuana) beeches at 8,202.09+ feet (2,500+ meters);
• Evergeen conifers such as Papua New Guinea cypresses (Papuacedrus papuana) at 9,842.52 - 13,123.36 feet (3,000 - 4,000 meters).

Northeastern Papua New Guinea’s forested slopes indeed are the sources of the specimens by which scientists investigate elusive, reclusive coppery ringtail possums. The first official descriptions and taxonomic determinations based upon these nineteenth-century expeditionary finds in fact come in 1897 from Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (February 21, 1858 – June 16, 1929) as:

• Millbrook-born British zoologist;
• Natural History Museum mammalogist;
• Publisher of 2,000+ scientific descriptions;
• Writer of 1,000+ scientific books, catalogues and documents.

Budgets, priorities, and terrain continue to limit sustained scientific study of Oldfield’s coppery ringtail possums well into the climate change-challenged, globally-warmed twenty-first century. For example, scientists still lack closure regarding the sufficiency and validity of the subspecies Pseudochirops cupreus beauforti, P.c. cupreus, and P.c. obscurior. 

Scientists evince no concern over coppery ringtail sustainability. The shy nocturnalist’s healthy populations, savvy lifestyle, and vast biogeography explain the lack of scientific anguish. It helps that eastern and western New Guineans are committed to their taenaybon -- what locals call coppery ringtails -- enjoying eco-paradisiacal national parks and wildlife reserves. But at the same time, it is important to be ever-vigilant regarding the impacts on high-altitude organisms of:

• Agro-industrial development;
• Globally-warmed climate change;
• Local hunting.

The wildland-urban interface between occupants of the built and natural environments always needs monitoring for the rights of people and wildlife to the sustainability and well-being of their respective populations, now and as long as Earth is the universe’s beloved Blue Planet. 

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Annali del Museo civico di storia naturale di Genova, Ser. 2, Vol. XVIII (XXXVIII), Tav. II: Not in copyright, via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/annalidelmuseoci38muse/page/n742/mode/1up; Not in copyright, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/7785955

Puncak Jaya, also known as Carstensz Pyramid in honor of 17th century Dutch explorer Jan Carstenszoon: Alfindra Primaldhi, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Puncakjaya.jpg

view of the Owen Stanley Ranges from Ower's Corner, 31 miles (50 km) east of Port Moresby, southeastern Papua New Guinea: Colin Freeman (ColinF at English Wikipedia), CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:OwenStanleyRangeOwersCornerView.jpg

Distribution data from IUCN Red List: Chermundy/IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, species assessors and the authors of the spatial data, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Coppery_Ringtail_Possum_area.png

Araucaria hunsteinii mature trunk detail: Phil Markey, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Araucaria-hunsteinii-trunk.jpg

oil on canvas by John Ernest Breun (1862-1921): Kristofer M. Helgen, Roberto Portela Miguez, James Kohen, Lauren Helgen/ZooKeys, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_of_Michael_Rogers_Oldfield_Thomas_-_ZooKeys-255-103-g003-bottom_right.jpeg; via Pensoft Publishers / ZooKeys @ https://zookeys.pensoft.net/showimg.php?filename=oo_25946.jpg

Grasberg Mine: in Sudirman Range, western portion of Maoke Mountains, Papua province, Indonesia (New Guinea): Alfindra Primaldhi, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Grasberg_mine.jpg

Highlands Highway, Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea: Toksave, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Highland_Highway_Eastern_Highlands_Province_Papua_New_Guinea.jpg

Chimbu, Jiwaka and Madang provinces meet at Mount Wilhelm's peak, one of coppery ringtail possum's Papua New Guinea landscapes.: Nomadtales, CC BY-SA 2.1 AU, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mount_Wilhelm.jpg

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